Passage

1 Corinthians 9.3

Book: 1 Corinthians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? 2. If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

3. My defence to them that examine me is this.

Have we no right to eat and to drink? 5. Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? (1 Corinthians 9:1-5, ASV)

WEB

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord? 2. If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3. My defense to those who examine me is this.

Have we no right to eat and to drink? 5. Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? (1 Corinthians 9:1-5, WEB)

KJV

Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord? 2. If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.

3. Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,

Have we not power to eat and to drink? 5. Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? ^{wife: or, woman} (1 Corinthians 9:1-5, KJV)

YLT

Am not I an apostle? am not I free? Jesus Christ our Lord have I not seen? my work are not ye in the Lord? 2. if to others I am not an apostle, yet doubtless to you I am; for the seal of my apostleship are ye in the Lord.

3. My defence to those who examine me in this;

have we not authority to eat and to drink? 5. have we not authority a sister, a wife, to lead about, as also the other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? (1 Corinthians 9:1-5, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle
Audience: the church at Corinth, a mixed Jew-and-Gentile congregation in a wealthy Roman colony, fractured over teachers, status, sexual ethics, and the limits of freedom
Location: composed in Ephesus, addressed to Corinth
Time period: c. AD 55-56

Theological reading

My defence to them that examine me is this. The word Paul uses is apologia, and the verb for the examination is anakrino, a term with legal colour, used of the preliminary investigation of a case. Paul is answering an inquiry into his credentials, and this verse is the formal heading of that answer.

The word is the one the discipline takes its name from, and it appears here in its ordinary first-century sense: a reasoned reply given to people entitled to ask. It is the same word in 1 Peter 3:15, where believers are told to be ready to give an apologia to everyone who asks a reason for the hope in them. Neither text presents defence as an optional temperament for the argumentatively inclined. See Apologetics.

What Paul actually defends is instructive. The charge was apparently that a genuine apostle would have accepted support, and that his refusal of payment showed he knew he was not entitled to it. His reply is to establish the right at length, from the Law, from the temple, and from a saying of Jesus, and then to explain that he has declined to use it. The defence of his apostleship consists in demonstrating a right he does not exercise, which is a rhetorical shape worth noticing: he answers the accusation by proving the thing he gave up.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G627 - apologia, apologia, Strong's G627

Quoted in

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.